lakshyaisagod 2021-04-26 06:04
TODO: review game
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → The Cave
By incobalt
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 601 | 3.23 | 28 | |
| Fun | 679 | 2.94 | 28 | |
| Innovation | 408 | 3.28 | 27 | |
| Theme | 583 | 3.36 | 28 | |
| Graphics | 646 | 3.07 | 28 | |
| Audio | 508 | 3.01 | 28 | |
| Humor | 459 | 2.45 | 23 | |
| Mood | 219 | 3.65 | 28 |
TODO: review game
Cool little game!
Even if was to a compo, could have more challenges than just go to one point to another, but has a nice history :v
@srrinio I was lucky to get what I had in just under the buzzer! I spent (probably too much) so much time on getting Unity to make light bounce well enough that it wasn't too bright and wasn't too dark that I just ran out of time making puzzle areas. I don't pretend that my game is very challenging or that it has a lot of variety. It was more a proof of concept :) Thanks, though :D
I love the idea of using GI as a gameplay parameter. And nice Voronoï texture!
@robinfaury I wish GI was easier to work with (and that I knew more about it), but it seems rather limited. I don't like how bright I have to make the lights just to get a little bit of lit distance. And it didn't work perfectly here because I couldn't accurately predict how far the light would travel. Is it so wrong to ask for volumetric lighting?! (Ye, yes it is :P) As for that texture, I can't claim much for it. Paint .Net has a "Crystalize" effect that makes the Voronoï look. But I like using it :) Thanks for playing!
Well done. I like the sorta creepy vibe at the beginning. Music was ok. I will admit that out of confusion I named my firs torch Wolf and than decided to keep naming them animals :D. Cool game :)
@labete Thanks! I am not, and never will be, a great musician. I just wanted a descending musical tone and maybe some wind vibes? What you name the torches is up to you and totally fine :) I didn't want to make it very directed or incredibly heavy-handed. I think it's cute that a bunch of animals helped you navigate the darkness :D
Oh, ok. That felt a little like an interactive story somehow. Even if it was 3D and all, good mood. Nice graphics for a compo too - I like the idea to use the grates as barriers which still permit light through. Tried to ignite my torch at the one that was already burning at the start, but then realized they start to give light when placed in the holds. Cool entry :thumbsup:
@zondarg Thanks! I really liked the addition of the grates. I think they added quite a lot more variety to the gameplay. This game is a bit like a game I made a while back where I try to get the player to explore something about themselves, but this one felt more like a game and less like a reflexive tool (like my earlier game was). Glad you enjoyed it :D
Out of anything this game has a great mood. I like that it mentions that it's not a game about a cave, and leaves the player to ponder a deeper meaning of it. I'm not quite sure what the real meaning was but it was still a good mood-setter. The gameplay is interesting enough for the length of the game, and I feel like it could definitely be expanded on with more mechanics and more detailed maps. Overall well done!
@syndakai Thanks! :D I wanted the player to always be thinking, what could it mean? I love games that invite interpretation and meditation. I would love to do more with the concept, though I would need to figure out a better solution for the lights. The Global Illumination I'm using was a good solution for the jam, but it's unreliable and it just doesn't work the way I'd like. I'm glad you enjoyed the mood of it :)
Good job! Progression is kinda limited to one solution but that's ok. Sometimes outside background bleeds into the small openings at the models. You can try making the camera background black so that those parts can be less apparent
@wolderado Thanks! The camera background *is* black, what you're seeing is probably light bleed from the torches or some such. Honestly, I don't know how to combat the problem, which is probably from seams where the tiles line up. The tiles are one unit in size and are one unit apart, so really I don't know what you're supposed to do to keep the seams from showing sometimes. I've always had lighting problems in Unity. I don't know what possessed me to make something that was lighting-focused! :P
@incobalt is there a directional light? You might try changing the bias settings or remove it entirely
nice mood in this one
@scalphamission Thanks! :D
@wolderado Oh! Gosh I'm embarrassed. My main camera does have a light blue background on it from when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to do the cave mouth effect. When you mentioned a directional light I was like I *thought* I removed that (was trying it as a darkness correction for a bit), and I thought to double check my camera and there it was. It was fully transparent, so I think I just grabbed the wrong slider when I thought I was changing it back to black. Oops! Oh well :P
Had to turn the lights off in my room to beat this one! Thank you to Shezz, Bast, Roob, and the rest for lighting the way.
@caeonosphere Oh no! There was an option for improving the dark areas in the options menu. Did that not help enough? Shezz, Bast, Roob, and the others are legends! :)
Interesting idea, tho as I far as I understood there's only one solution that lets you move forward, but I guess it's okay for a 48 hours game. The cave visuals are repetitive, but the atmosphere and the mood are very good!
@videt Thanks! I know it's really short and limited. I didn't have time to make it more complicated and such. I spent too much time fiddling with lighting trying to get it all working properly (and probably fussed too much over it!).
I really liked the atmosphere you created with this. Also the ending credits with the torches was really cool I was wondering why I had to name them throughout but it really paid off. Great work for 48 hours.
There is a really good basis for a puzzle game here! It could have been a bit more fleshed out though, but I understand that time is short. I don't get why you have to name the torches though...
The best part about this game is the fact that the game reminds you of the stupid names you gave the torches. I was pretty amused when the following came up: torch.png Other people have given feedback on the actual gameplay, but I would also like to point out the game is basically the exact opposite of the theme, getting further and further out lol.
I really like the twist of the game. Well done.
Great idea to let the player give the game a personal touch by naming the torches. Even better in combination with the conclusion! Though i have to admit, at some point naming each torch was starting to get on my nerves :P Nice work nonetheless!
@supersammy00 Thanks! I was going somewhere a bit psychological with this one, but if it doesn't hit, then it doesn't. I think it won't for some people. Glad you enjoyed seeing them again at the end :) @bodaciouslycrazy Yeah, there's more I could do with this, but I couldn't get it all together with the time I had. And I'd want a better system for lighting than I have at the moment. It's a bit of a hack, relying on the GI system here. Naming the torches has a symbolic meaning in this game, and I don't expect everyone to get symbolism. Remember, though, that the game is very explicit about not being about a cave. It's not really about lighting torches, either. @wiredoverload I hadn't thought of it that way, but I suppose that's true about the theme. Thinking about it, I probably should have had the game in reverse, starting at the mouth of the cave and going until you find "your light". Oh well, there's still a lot of "deep" theming I'm trying out here, though :) @mighty-mufflon-games Thanks! I'm not sure I quite understand the "twist" unless you've managed to read into it well and are referring to the last line of the credits. Either way, glad you enjoyed it! @lazzor In a more fleshed out game, you'd probably have very few torches to name over the course of the game and you'd have torches recur that were already named from previous puzzle chambers. Having so many all at once is a bit tedious and it doesn't make sense at the time. Glad you liked it, though :D
I really love the idea of naming your torches. it personifies them in a way that makes you sad to leave them behind. they arent just "a" torch, they are MY torches. also having the character be unable to enter the darkness was a nice touch too. removing the option to wander in darkness is a good way to keep the player focused (because my adhd ass would be going straight in there the moment it took longer than 5 seconds to find a torch :P)
@radmccool Thanks! I wanted a nice emotional touch to the game, and I'm glad people are catching on sometimes. I also wanted it to be that you couldn't move on without the torch because a) you might get lost and stuck, and b) the darkness really isn't an actual physical darkness but something that's holding you back from being able to reach the surface alone. Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you liked it! :)
What a wholesome experience! I named my torches after important concepts like "Peace" and "Happiness" at first, ending with "Vertical Mouselook" and "W" as I couldn't be bothered to come up with more. That said, my only complaint really is the very sensitive mouselook (slider for camera turning speed would be great) and lack of an vertical invert option for the mouselook. Otherwise, I really like the adventure you've built here: the light placement was especially neat, the way they light up corridors behind a few turns in unexpected ways. Credits are fun to read and give space to reflect, so they were a nice touch.